In the mid-1990s, then-Police Chief Compton Owens put Pendergraft in charge of cleaning up crime in the city's public housing developments.

"Ambulances and fire trucks wouldn't go into public housing without a police officer," he recalled last week. "Police wouldn't go in without another officer.

"Domino's delivery was unheard of."

But Pendergraft said he and nine fellow police officers eventually turned things around by winning the trust of public housing residents and evicting the troublemakers.

Fifteen years later, the retired police lieutenant finds himself once again talking about public housing -- this time as a candidate to replace Sandra Moon as south Huntsville's next City Council member. Eight candidates are vying to fill Moon's District 3 seat in the Aug. 24 municipal election.

The housing authority riled many south Huntsville residents last year by converting Stone Manor apartments near Pendergraft's home in the Chaffee neighborhood into the first significant public housing outside of downtown.

Pendergraft said the anger stemmed from the "backdoor" way the housing authority bought Stone Manor with little advance notice. It is the only public housing complex in the city -- and maybe all of Alabama -- where residents have fireplaces and swimming pools with lifeguards, he said.

"That's not what public housing should be about," Pendergraft said. "Where's the incentive to come out of it?"

Pendergraft said he supports a bill sponsored by state Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison, that would force the housing authority to disclose the locations of properties it is looking to purchase.

"It's very enforceable," Pendergraft said, "and I look forward to being part of the team to see that they get it passed."

The Rocket City native's strong views on the housing authority helped him win the endorsement of the South Huntsville Civic Association. The group donated $750 to Pendergraft's campaign and is urging its members to vote for him.

Although the housing authority remains a big issue in south Huntsville, Pendergraft said he doesn't hear much about it on the campaign trail. Folks seem more concerned about "the things that are right around their house," he said, such as speeding drivers, barking dogs and overgrown yards.

Pendergraft said he wants to bring more shopping and restaurants to south Huntsville. The city should consider adopting a "smart code" for building inspections, he said, that would give developers more flexibility to rehabilitate dilapidated storefronts lining the Parkway.

"If you go from Martin Road to the river, there's more closed businesses than open," he said.

Pendergraft, 50, grew up wanting to follow in the footsteps of his Huntsville police officer uncles Jan and Lowell Hunt. He joined the police "Ranger Corps" at age 16 and retired in 2007 as south precinct shift commander.

He now works as a senior analyst with Strategic Defense Solutions, a small defense contractor.

"I've been serving this city since I was 16 years old," Pendergraft said. Running for the council "is just the next step in my service."